Corel Draw-Illustrator-Inkscape-Saving,Importing and Exporting files between these programs

The issue of moving files between different Graphics Programs is one that Graphic Designers and Printers deal with on a daily basis. I will only deal with file formats that keep the artwork in its native Vector Drawing form which allows further editing in different programs.(See my related Hub for more detailed explination of Vector Graphics)

Illustrator to Inkscape and Corel Draw.

.ai files: Saving Adobe Illustrator files in the native .ai format is not surprisingly the best way of saving an Illustrator File. You can choose to save files in older versions of Illustrator, which is often wise especially if you want older programs to open the file. Corel Draw has done a pretty good job of opening .ai files from version 9 on. Corel Draw 14 opens .ai files very well with little or no loss of detail. Inkscape also opens Illustrator .ai files very well with little or no loss of detail. eps and pdf files: (Encapsulated Post Script and Portable Document Format) Illustrator also makes excellent eps and pdf files which can be opened in the latest versions of Corel Draw (13-14) with little or few detail problems. Inkscape cannot open eps files but will open pdf files created with Illustrator.

Corel Draw to Illustrator and Inkscape:

.cdr files: The latest version of Illustrator will open Corel Draw files with a varying degree of success. Very Complex files with drop shadows and overlaying outlines of varying thickness like the sample at the top of the page could cause problems and not open correctly in Illustrator. The latest Beta version of Inkscape (see my related Hub) also has the capacity to open Corel Draw files with varying degrees of success. For instance it opens the Corel Clipart from my old Corel Draw 7 clipart disk perfectly. It struggles however with the more complex files. .eps and pdf files: Corel Draw 14 exports very good .eps files that open successfully in Illustrator CS. Inkscape however can not open .eps files. Inkscape also struggles to open pdf files created in Corel Draw with little or no success. .emf files: Enhanced metal files like the Swamp Foot Logo created in Corel Draw open up in Inkscape and in Illustrator with good results, but again the more complex files as in the top Image example will not export well in emf. Illustrator and Corel Draw are more Cross compatible than Inkscape and Corel Draw.

Inkscape to Illustrator and Corel Draw:

.svg files: Scaleable Vector Graphics (also Inkscapes native format) . Svg files created in Inkscape open very well in Illustrator with very little or no loss of detail. The same files open poorly in Corel Draw. eps and pdf files: Encapsulated Post Script and Portable Document Format files created in Inkscape open up very well in Illustrator and Corel Draw, in particular Eps files. .emf files: Enhanced metal files like the Swamp Foot Logo when created in Inkscape open very well in both Illustrator and Corel Draw but again the more complex files don't work well in this format which was designed for more simple flat clipart images.

Different versions:

I can only really discuss working with the latest versions of these programs because they have been making Corel Draw and Illustrator since computers were steam powered (not quite) and the different combinations of what did and didn't work in the past would fill a book. The Latest versions of all three programs are the best at cross platform file sharing. Corel Draw 14 is now a nice stable program (avoid versions 10,11,12) 5,7,9,13,14 are the best versions with 9 still being used by a surprising amount of people in the Promotional Printing Industry. As I said before its worth downloading the latest beta version of Inkscape, which is quite stable and nearing its release date. Inkscape actually is my favourite these days, its fully featured and very easy to use when creating really dificult complex Illustration work.

Conclusion:

Ai (native Adobe Illustrator files) and Eps(Encapsulated Post Script) files rule the roost followed closely by Emf (Enhanced metal files). It is a lot easier to move files between platforms and with newer versions of each of these programs in the making I expect things to get even better in the future.